Monday, June 21, 2010

Final thoughts, two weeks removed

As I look around my room, my life is scattered everywhere. Life before Europe and after. Life from when I was 16 and life from Chicago. I currently feel like my room is the place where all of my lives are colliding with each other.

I've been home from Europe for two weeks now. It doesn't seem possible. I slowly keep realizing that I'm not returning in the near future. Part of me is completely fine with that and part of me is melancholy. Reverse culture shock does exist, I'm going through it and will be for awhile I think. It's nothing that I can explain out loud though because everything I notice is different.

One example from today; I was getting an iced chai and the lady filled my cup all the way up with ice. All I could think was, I haven't seen that much ice in a cup in a long time, you would never get that much ice or ice at all in Europe, and someone in another place, such as Africa, would love to have access to this water.

But that's what travel does. It opens your eyes. So I'm back and though I am home, I am perceiving my old world with new eyes. Our massive cars, the insane amount of land we have, our government, music, language, food, culture; it's so much more interesting since I have been away from it for five months.

Some people have asked me a lot of questions about my trip and some haven't. Sometimes it's easy for me to talk about and other times it's difficult. Most of the time I don't know where to begin and I can't pick the best place, time, moment, food; or even the worst. Nor can I pick what I missed the most.

How I feel about all of it? Best thing I ever did. The travel bug is ignited inside of me. I'm already planning my next adventure for summer 2011.

But looking back on all of it, the insights I gained about traveling are these:
1. Accept that things are going to go wrong and that you don't have control over it.
2. When things go wrong, breathe, think, stay calm, and take action. You have to act quickly, but you need to be smart. There's no reason to panic. You always have options.
3. Go with the flow. If you can't find where you are going or you're lost, retrace your steps. You'll get there eventually.
4. You aren't going to travel well with everyone, but it's all about the experience.
5. Remember that every moment bad and good will be the best memory and you grow from it all.
6. Trust your gut. Especially when traveling by yourself. You have to be comfortable being by yourself and figuring it out as you go. 

I think these are the top six things I learned after traveling. Of course there are dozens more, but for the most part they all fit into these six ideas.

In five months I traveled to 13 countries. (Just for grins I will list them in order) - Italy, Vatican City, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Greece, Malta, Ireland, Poland, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and France. And I'm ready to add more stamps to my passport.

However, it's still nice to be home. It's starting to feel more real. We just don't realize how different our world is over here. It took me a couple of days to get used reading every sign in English. When I flew into Chicago, it felt unreal. America truly is a completely different place. For so long I couldn't imagine ever being home and part of me still can't believe that I'm back.

I had a great adventure, met amazing people all along the way, can't wait to go travel again. But content to be at home, because there's a lot to experience here as well.

So this is the final sign off to this blog. Thank you so much to all of you who read this along the way. It really means a lot to me. I didn't just write for me, but to all of you. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm thinking of starting up a regular blog, but have decided for sure yet. Thoughts?

Lots of love
Katherine